Automobile bodies, bicycles, toys, appliances and other industrial and consumer articles are conventionally spray painted in areas called spray booths wherein water curtains are employed to wash the air and to remove over-sprayed paint, lacquer or enamel solids, the wash water is treated to remove solids and the treated water is recirculated.
A major problem associated with spray painting operations concerns the tacky or adhesive nature of the over-sprayed organic solids. The solids tend to agglomerate and accumulate on the walls, ceiling and floor of the spray area and to clog water spray equipment, recirculating pumps and the like.
One solution which has been found to have practical application to the problem involves the use of chemicals which, when added to the water, detackify the paint, lacquer or enamel solids. A wide variety of chemicals have been proposed for this use and those which have attracted particular interest involve the combination of long carbon chain surface active nitrogen derivatives or certain cationic polymers with multi-valent metal salts which form insoluble hydroxides at a pH greater than about 7. The use of combinations of this type are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,861,887 to Forney; 3,990,986 to Gabel et al; 4,002,490 to Michalski et al; 4,067,806 to Manceri; 4,130,674 to Roberts et al; and 4,440,647 to Puchalski. While these compositions are generally effective in detackifying and removing paint overspray, a need exists for compositions having higher efficiency in order to increase productivity and to achieve a high degree of effectiveness for all types of paints and particularly solvent-borne paints, lacquers and enamels.